Survive
by Zamen Kensata
Summary: Something I typed up on a whim. Zombie apocalyptic horror and adventures. Each chapter will be about a new survivor or group of survivors fighting to stay alive. Well...if this thing is liked enough to make it past the first chapter anyway.
1. Run

George A. Romero is the zombie movie Godfather and since this story is in the Dawn of the Dead category he owns all undead freaks in story.

**Survive**

**1**

**Run**

Small and insignificant, a simple droplet of salt water generated from the caramel skinned pores of a young man. The sweat did not seep out from his body due to nervousness or fear. The young man was just unfortunate enough to have been born and raised in the small city of Hollywood, Florida where temperatures can cause high perspiration levels inside the human body during the summer months. The droplet was so small on the tip of the man's nose that he did not notice it. His mind was too focused on the figure roughly twelve feet in front of the brown dumpster he was crouching behind. The sun had begun its descent behind the tall buildings of the city, preparing to shine its light on the other side of the world and the young man was growing impatient.

Air vacuumed into the man's lungs through his nostrils, the slight expansion of flesh and cartilage causing the droplet to detach from the tip of his nose and splatter with a slight thump onto a tin pan that had long since fallen from the overfilled dumpster. For a split second, the man's eyes averted from the figure he spied on, the quiet sound shattering into his ears and shocking his nerves. As his vision rose back to the opening of the trash covered alley, the figure had vanished from its original spot.

"Shh…" Before he could finish swearing to himself the figure, blurred by the failing light and shadows from the alley refocused into a pale, bloodstained, middle-aged man covered in a shredded business suit and several bite wounds born from human teeth. With no time to react, the young man found himself starring up at the sky, struggling to keep the older man's teeth away from his body. His head banged off of the pavement sending him into a daze for a full second that seemed like a lifetime.

***************

"Kevin…Kevin!" A young girl's voice flowed into a young man's ears.

Kevin Durnest, sat up on his bed, a cell phone clutched lightly in his right hand. "Yeah?"

"Were you listening to me?" The girl asked with a hint of comical suspicion in her voice.

"Cindy, when do I ever _not_ listen to you?" Kevin replied innocently.

"Mm-hmm…" Cindy Washington grinned through the phone. "What was I just saying?"

Kevin glanced around the room guiltily while turning the volume on his television down. "Umm…uhh…your butt looking big?" The gasp Kevin got for a reply was all the answer he needed as an agitated voice followed the sudden intake of air.

"Sunsets! You goof! How could you mistake my…" Another gasp shot into Cindy's lungs. "Do you think my butt is big!?"

Kevin hesitated for a moment, cautiously planning his next response. "Come on, Cindy. I'm black, of course I think your butt's big, it's in our genes to visualize large round shapely asses on hot women." Michael cringed as he waited for Cindy's response.

"Aww…Kevin." Cindy giggled. "Now I _really _wish you were here to see this sunset with me…that's the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me."

"You know…" Kevin said after sighing in relief. "I never really got the whole romantic sunset thing."

"Oh it's not just about romance." Cindy explained. "I still can't believe you've never seen a sunset _or_ a sunrise. You _have _to see one! They're two of nature's natural treasures."

"Don't worry; I'll see all the sunsets and rises you want when I get up there." Kevin assured her.

"Oh I hope so…I can't wait to see you." Cindy said affectionately.

***************

_I can't wait to see you…I can't wait to see you…I can't wait to see you…_The echo of Cindy's voice silently drifted to the back of Kevin's mind as the yellow dry blood stained teeth of the man on top of him snapped towards his neck with an instinctive fury. Struggling with the man was similar to trying to lift a bloodthirsty lion off of him. Kevin risked reaching out with his left hand trying frantically to grasp anything that he could use to aid in his escape. His fingers graced the greasy end of a metal pipe that was nestled against a junked car battery. Kevin grabbed the pipe and swung with all of the strength he could spare towards the crazed man's head.

Free of the death that nearly ripped through his flesh, Kevin scrambled to his feet, tightly gripping the pipe with both hands. He quickly decided not to wonder what the grease on the pipe was and darted out of the alley, too concerned with escaping the maniac behind him to remember the reason why he ducked into the alley to begin with.

"Ah…fuck." Kevin said with deep disappointment after sliding to an abrupt halt, unconsciously dropping the pipe.

Hundreds of widened dilated eyes locked on to the live warm flesh that emerged from the alley. The flesh hungry mouths oozing with drool below them sprung open releasing nerve shattering screeches. Seconds later the crowd of cannibalistic civilians was running across the street towards a potential meal. Their arms stretched out and their upper bodies hunched forward, their very essence of being was drawn to the live meat only a few yards away.

Kevin instinctively began backing away only to be reminded of the flesh eating man he left in the alley behind him. "Mother fucker, god damnit!" Kevin turned and ran as fast as his legs would carry him down the street weaving in between the broken abandoned cars. Some of the vehicles were still filled with dead partially eaten people that awoke, reaching out through shattered windows towards the fresh meat that breezed by. The automobiles seemed to vanish as they were overlapped with hundreds of multicolored bodies covered in multicolored clothes.

_What the fuck is going on… What the fuck is going on… What the fuck is going on!? _The words buzzed inside Kevin's mind almost drowning out the inhuman roars behind him. His body suddenly turned to the right and instead of a fleet of vehicles, his eyes scanned a line of buildings that formed a small shopping plaza. Tired and terrified, Kevin darted into the plaza, picking up several more cannibal predators along the way towards a Winn Dixie grocery store. Kevin fell back after his face slammed into the automatic shatterproof glass doors that failed to open.

"You gotta be fucking shitting me!" Kevin shouted while rubbing his nose. "Hey!" He pounded on the doors after standing up. "Let me in! Help!" Kevin banged frantically on the doors for a handful of seconds before the loud screeches and footsteps pulled his attention back to the more pressing situation gathering behind him. "Ok…" Michael said while pressing his back to the doors. "I'm guessing telling you all to go to hell isn't gonna help me out any…is it?" He sighed at the silent glare he got from the hungry monsters. "You fuckers are probably here cause' there wasn't any room left anyway…" Kevin closed his eyes and waited for his painfully gruesome end.


	2. Outbreak

**Author's note:** Ok so here is chapter two. Like I said in the description each chapter is gonna be about a different person or group of people. I haven't decided yet if I am going to pick up on any of the stories in previous chapters as these things progress. I probably will but if anyone has one in particular that they would like to read more about let me know. Reviews are appreciated as well as suggestions. Thanks.

**2**

**Outbreak**

Steam. Jacob swore he could see it. Though the sun beamed down and managed to reflect off of even the most blood and dirt stained windows fitted into the crumbling buildings of Sadr City, blinding Jacob's blue eyes through his black army issued eye pro, the steam, the menacing steam still managed to float into his view. It generated from the immense sweat soaking Jacob's A. (Army Combat Uniform). It was obviously imaginary; Jacob never saw steam seeping from his pores in such heated temperatures. His mind drifted in and out of the past. Back when things were simpler, the cold Georgia morning Fort Stewart would bring and the long five mile morning runs his platoon would undergo. The cool air would mix with the platoon's risen body heat and the steam would fly from their heads like white smoke.

There was no steam today, only Jacob's failing sense of reality. How many of his friends had died to sniper fire? The number was too high to recollect and the faces too painful to remember. Everything had become so routine. Wake up, get dressed, walk the streets, eat a falafel or two, load up in the humvee, and return to the J.S.S (Joint Security Site). Jacob didn't hate the Iraqis as so many of his brothers in arms did. But he did hate their country. His body longed for the luxuries of the United States and his mind wandered back to his apartment back in Hinesville.

"Wake up, Foster!" Sergeant Morrison of Alpha Company 1-30th INF Battalion shouted after smacking Jacob Foster's Kevlar covered head.

"Ow!" Jacob frowned. "What the fuck!?" He turned to Morrison and received a fierce glare that rivaled his own.

"Keep your fucking head screwed on straight, Foster. We've lost too many soldiers in this month _alone _for this bullshit."

"It's hot!" Jacob hissed.

Morrison shook his head in disgust. "Get your shit together, Foster." His eyes scanned the near empty streets of the city. Not too long ago, a month maybe two, Delta Company rolled through these cracked streets. Endless piles of trash, destroyed cars and machinery littered the barely paved roads along with the rotting corpses that the civilians were too afraid to reclaim gathering flies and maggots. Morrison could still remember securing alleyways and rooftops while the tanks tore down walls and houses while blasting through skyscrapers. He remembered standing watch while thousands of families fled the city to escape certain death. They would all be returning soon, now that the city was _secure_. Returning to these broken crumbling piles of shit. Morrison couldn't describe the buildings any better. His nose twitched at the foul stench emanating from the lake of trash flooded with human and animal feces. _I hate this fucking country._

Jacob stopped at the end of the road with the rest of his platoon and peered around the corner. Several civilians passed by him and his fellow soldiers. Some glanced at him while others stared. "Sarge, the next time you hit me…" Jacob began but stopped. Something caught his attention from the right corner of his right eye. "What the…hell?"

It was Phillips, PV2 Roger Phillips. He was what the other members of the platoon had dubbed a slacker. There was always one in a military unit. No matter how lazy everyone else was, as long as they kept their performances above Roger's they were all right, most of the time. However something seemed out of place at that moment. Phillips was stumbling and wheezing. Heat exhaustion? Jacob couldn't blame him. Still…something was not right. A quick scan of the area brought less civilians into view than before. The air seemed to slowly be turning stale. Something about the world seemed to go cold and still.

"Phillips!" Morrison glared.

Jacob's fingers tightened around his M-4 Carbine while his senses began to heighten along with his nervousness. "Sarge…something's not right."

Morrison ignored Jacob, too frustrated with the blatant insubordination his soldiers were displaying. "Phillips!" Morrison grabbed the dazed soldier's arm. "What the fuck is the matter with you!? Do you _want_ to die!?"

"Sarge…" Phillips wheezed.

"What did I tell you about drinking water!? I told you this shit would happen!" Morrison barked.

"Sarge…something aint right…" Jacob said again.

"Sarge I…I…had to…" Phillips gasped.

"I don't want to hear anymore of your shit, Phillips just get your shit together and…" It wasn't until the bright crimson blood began seeping through Phillips's uniform did Morrison stop shouting. "Doc! Get over here!"

"I had to shoot him…I had to shoot him…" Tears were forming around Phillips's eyes.

"Shoot who?" Morrison wondered.

The shot. Jacob had heard it, they all had heard it but gunshots had become a part of the ambience of the city. They were common place and no one really paid attention anymore. "Something aint right…"

"He was crazed…he bit me! He wouldn't stop he kept grabbing me and screaming! He was foaming at the mouth…the mother fucker was foaming at the mouth!" Phillips screeched.

"Calm down damn it! No one gives a fuck about some dog!" Specialist, Zack Phelps shouted.

"It wasn't a dog!" Phillips started trembling. "It was a…it was a…"

"What!?" Morrison grabbed Phillips by the collar and shook him. "What did you shoot!?"

"It was a little boy…" Phillips couldn't believe his own words. "It was a fucking kid!"

"Sarge!!" Jacob shouted at the top of his lungs with terror etched across his face.

"What!?" Morrison turned to Jacob.

Jacob pointed towards the end of the road they had come from breathing heavily. "Something aint _fucking_ right!"

Morrison turned and as his eyes were filled with the unimaginable sight Jacob had already taken in, his mouth opened yet no words escaped it and his eyes widened behind his black eye pro. _No_.

The thousands of civilians that had been evacuated from the city returned with blood curdling roars. Every live civilian passed was tackled or dragged to the ground. Their flesh was stripped from their bones. Their organs were ripped free from inside of their bodies. Their screams were short lived and quickly silenced.

Phillips stumbled back and hit the ground. "This aint happening man…this aint happening…"

Morrison remained stunned for only a handful of seconds before his instincts for survival began to take over. "Phillips! Get the fuck up and get that S.A.W ready!" His eyes scanned the rest of his platoon. "Lock and load!"

The other nine soldiers switched their rifles from safe to three round burst.

Morrison took aim at the advancing mob. "Fire!"

A barrage of bullets ripped through the crazed cannibals causing many to topple over. In seconds the running crowd was reduced to a stumbling gaggle of bodies. To the shock and terror of the soldiers, most of the cannibals were only down for less than two seconds. Some only fell forward and caught themselves with their hands before continuing their advance.

"What the hell is going on here!?" PFC Max Reynolds shouted.

"Why aren't they dieing!?" Jacob screamed.

Phillips was still trembling on the ground when reality finally began to set in. "Fuck this!" He was on his feet in less than three seconds with his 240 SAW locked loaded and aimed at the crowd. The spray of 7.62mm rounds did a lot more damaged than the small 5.56mm rounds from the M-4s. "Fuck this! Fuck this! Fuck this!" After dropping a few dozen of the crazed Iraqis, Phillips turned and ran past Jacob and around the corner.

"Phillips!" Jacob called out. "Hey!"

"Fall back!" Morrison's order came too late as several members of his platoon began to fall prey to the cannibals.

"Richard!" Zack screamed while trying to save his friend with the last few rounds from his current clip.

"Run! Fucking run!" Morrison shouted.

"Where's the humvee!?" Jacob shouted. "Where's the humvee!?"

While the soldiers ran, Morrison tried to raise the humvee patrol that the other half of his platoon made up. After a few seconds of static, Morrison gave up and began scanning the area for a defensive position. Virtually every building, be it a house or a skyscraper was unbarred and open to anyone. This however, was the major problem. Ease of access for the soldiers meant ease of access for their enemy. The Iraqis were too close for his platoon to barricade anything. They needed a building with at least a sturdy door.

"There!" Zack shouted and pointed towards what he believed to be a miracle.

Callahan. A former J.S.S still littered with army barricades and fortifications. The parking lots had been surrounded with strategically placed concrete t-barriers for defense. The building itself was a massive rectangular shaped skyscraper that was once a major shopping mall for the citizens of Sadr city. Two more soldiers fell to the speed of the cannibals before the rest of the dwindling platoon made it into the building. They were human and at the same time inhuman. None of the soldiers could understand how or why the crazed people were so fast and strong.

One hour later all of the doors were shut and a sea of undead civilians swarmed outside of the mall. The inside of the mall had been transformed into a military outpost. There was literally no evidence of the building once serving as a shopping center, save for the giant decaying letters attached to the top on the outside.

"What the _fuck_ is going on!?" Jacob hissed.

"This is impossible…" Zack shook his head while cowering against a pillar.

"Charlie squad, come in…" Morrison continued trying to raise the rest of his platoon. "Damn it! Frank answer the fucking radio!"

Vomit spewed from Philips's throat onto the stone floor of the main lobby, once used as a mechanical bay for military vehicles. "What the fuck is wrong with those people man!? What are they!?"

"What are they!? It's pretty fucking obvious what they are!" Jacob snapped.

"And what the fuck is that man!? What!?" Phillips slammed down his Kevlar and trembled, barely holding back tears.

"Are you fucking serious!? Or no you're high you gotta be fucking high!" Jacob frowned.

"Shut up!" Morrison barked. "We need to figure out a way to reestablish comms with the outside-fucking-world."

"Yeah…get some tanks and apaches up in here or something..." Zack lit up one of his now cherished Newport cigarettes in an attempt to calm his nerves.

"Not _or something_ more like right fucking now." Jacob said, taking one of Zack's cigarettes without asking.

"This place was closed down months ago. All of the equipment is _gone_. How the hell are we going to get through to anybody?"

"Oh god…" Phillips groaned clutching his wounded wrist. In all of the excitement the pain had been washed away by adrenaline but now the sharp sting had returned. He removed what was left of the green and gray nomex glove and glared at the wound remembering the small boy that had sunk his teeth into him. "You little shit…! Fucking bite me!?" His eyes glanced over the dimly lit lobby before resting on Zack. "Hey doc…give me a fucking bandage or something."

Before Zack began to make his way over to Phillips a distant scurrying of footsteps caught his attention. "What was that?"

"What was what man!?" Phillips glanced around, his terror returning.

"I thought this place was fucking secure!" Morrison shouted while bringing his M-4 up into the ready position.

"You walked the halls right along with us, sarge." Jacob pushed himself off of a pillar he was leaning against and readied his own weapon.

The four soldiers stacked up against the back right wall that an eight foot wide downward staircase sat beside. All of the movement signals were given by Morrison, a simple double flick of his wrist towards the other side of the staircase caused Jacob and Phillips to silently dash to that corner. They descended the staircase by twos, one group roughly five meters behind the other. They were quick yet silent. Their terror heightened their sense of alert. They had all removed their Kevlars at one point or another and only Morrison decided to keep his IBA (Interceptor Body Armor) on preferring to have as much between the cannibals' teeth and his flesh as possible. The lower levels of the mall were dark and dusty, an inner sanctum of pillars and passageways and long narrow hallways that opened up into large storage bays.

In their haste and confusion, the soldiers had believed they had searched out and secured every possible threat to their safety inside the mall. However as they moved further down one of the longer hallways of the lower levels an oddly familiar noise crept into their ears. Morrison raised his arm and closed his hand showing the back of his fist to his squad, causing them to halt.

"Guns and Roses…?" Jacob whispered.

"Welcome to the jungle." Zack said sarcastically as the squad pushed forward.

A dim light flickered from around the corner of the hallway. The squad edged closer together, their four silhouettes becoming one. A tap on the shoulder from the rear of the formation to the front signified the readiness of the group. They all leaned back slightly and rocked forward three times then launched into action. Jacob took point around the corner then immediately turned and faced the opposite direction of Morrison who now took point facing a small room with Zack standing beside him and Phillips standing with his back to him. Morrison rushed into square room with Zack and Jacob close behind him.

A young Arabic girl gasped in terror at the arrival of the soldiers and found herself surrounded. Each corner save the one she turned her back to harbored a tall man with a rifle aimed at her. Another soldier blocked the only exit to the room with a very large weapon. The girl cowered over a sick middle-aged woman lying flat across an old military cot, knocking over the small radio playing the American music. She began crying while begging the soldiers not to harm them in her native tongue.

"Hey what the fuck is she saying?" Phillips asked while looking over his shoulder.

"How the fuck should I know? I only know how to tell them to stop before I have to blow their heads off." Jacob frowned.

"She's…" Zack concentrated on the girl's words. "She's screaming something about her mom being sick. Please don't shoot us, blah, blah, blah the usually shit."

"Well if you can understand then maybe you can tell her to stop with the screeching before _I_ stop her screeching." Morrison barked.

Zack's Arabic was slow and choppy but he managed to get his point across. "It's ok; we're not going to hurt you." He held his hands up and let his rifle hang by its sling. "Stop screaming."

It took about a minute but the girl finally began to calm down. "My mother is sick…please help my mother!"

"What happened to her?" Zack knelt down beside the cot and detached his surefire flashlight from his rifle. He gently forced the woman's eyes open with his thumb and examined them with the light.

"That's fucking great." Phillips scoffed. "Some bomber's butt monkey gets patched up before I do."

Jacob slapped the back of Phillips's head. "Secure that shit, asshole."

"Ow! Hey man I'm just sayin'!" Phillips rubbed his sore head and coughed a bit violently.

"So what happened to her?" Jacob wondered.

"What happened to your mother?" Zack asked the girl.

"We we're attacked by the demons. They tried to eat us. They tried to eat my mother!" The girl screamed.

"Calm down." Zack placed his hand on the girl's shoulder trying to soothe her. While doing this he noticed a bright red line of blood dripping down the woman's shoulder. Several torn pieces of the oversized black dress Iraqi women wear were gathered in a pile beside the cot. Zack assumed the woman's daughter helped her remove the clothing. The thin gown she wore beneath it was clinging to her sweat covered body and the left strap was gone, replaced by a deep human bite wound. "Sarge." Zack sighed while standing up. "Same shit as outside."

"Ok she was attacked." Morrison stated the obvious. "But why the fuck is she so sick?"

"Why is you mother so sick?" Zack asked the girl.

"I don't know!" The girl cried. "She was fine this morning but then when we got here after the demons attacked she got sick!"

"Well?" Morrison sighed impatiently.

"No fucking idea." Zack shrugged.

"She doesn't know why her mom is sick?" Morrison frowned.

"No. she says it happened after they escaped from those psychos out there." Zack replied.

"This is a waste of time." Morrison scoffed.

"Boo fuckin' hoo man now that we got that shit out of the way can you do somethin' about this damn bite!?" Phillips groaned.

"Get the fuck over here you wuss." Zack grunted.

"Do you think it's infected man? Like rabies or some shit? Tell me it's not infected man!" Phillips rambled.

"Calm down you big baby." Zack dressed the wound with a bandage.

"So now what?" Jacob wondered.

"Now we do what we're trained to do, fucking survive. Let's get to the roof and…" Morrison's order was cut short as the girl began screaming.

"Mommy! Mommy no!" The girl shook her mother as the woman stopped breathing.

Zack knelt back down over the woman. "Get her out of the way!" Zack pulled the girl out of his way and Jacob held onto her. "Come on lady." He began to use CPR on the woman. He applied a head tilt chin lift maneuver and checked her airway. "Her airway's not blocked." He pressed his ear to her chest. "I don't fucking get it."

"Just back away, god knows what diseases these people are carrying it could be contagious!" Morrison ordered.

Zack placed his hand on her neck and after a few seconds sighed. "She's gone."

The girl ripped herself from Jacob's grasp and threw herself over her mother's lifeless body. Jacob looked away then held his head down unable to help the pity he felt for the girl. The soldiers couldn't understand why but they couldn't leave the girl. It was Morrison who first decided to speak up.

"Look, this is all real tragic but we have work to do if you all don't want to die." Morrison started walking towards the exit.

The other soldiers slowly began to follow when a loud and unnerving screech erupted from the small girl.

"What the fuck!?" Phillips jumped.

Jacob was the first to reenter the room. His body instinctively stumbled back at what he saw. "Jesus Christ!"

The small girl was clutched tightly in her mother's embrace. However it was not a warm embrace, the dead woman had somehow awoken on the cot and latched onto her daughter. The woman's teeth were sunk deeply into the girl's collarbone. Phillips turned from the horrific site and vomited. Zack shook his wide-eyed head in denial while Morrison only glared in rage and confusion. The girl continued to scream in pain and terror as her mother rose from the cot and slammed her onto it, taking a vicious bite out of her chest. She began tearing at her daughter's flesh like a wild hyena.

"What the fuck man!?" Phillips shouted. "What the fuck!?"

The undead woman glared up at the soldiers. An inhuman shriek escaped her before she pushed the cot and her dead daughter out of the way and lunged out towards them.

"Shoot her! Fucking shoot her!" Morrison shouted.

Jacob raised his rifle but the woman was too quick and tackled him before he could get a shot off. "Fuck! Get her off me! Get her off!" Jacob screamed in terror.

Zack grabbed the woman's shoulders and yanked with considerable force to no avail. _The fuck!?_ He slammed the butt of his rifle into her spine several times. _She didn't even feel it…how could she not feel that!?_

"Help me god damn it!" Jacob pleaded.

"Hey!" Morrison shouted, briefly grabbing the woman's attention.

The woman glared up at the live meat in front of her and bared her blood soaked teeth, growling at the potential meal. Seconds later Morrison's army issued eleven and a half wide boot slammed into her nose sending her frail body toppling back over the turned over cot. Morrison raised his rifle and put three rounds into the woman's chest. This only seemed to anger her.

"Not this shit again! Why the fuck wont you die bitch!?" Morrison shouted.

The woman leapt towards Morrison, who fell back screaming and firing his rifle. One of the bullets managed to bore its way into the woman's forehead before Morrison hit the floor.

"Get her off! Get her off!" Morrison shouted.

"Wait!" Jacob screamed while holding his hand out. "She…she's dead."

"We _know_ that asshole now get her off!" Morrison was too terrified to realize what had happened.

"No!" Jacob snapped. "I mean she's _dead!_"

Morrison slowly lifted the woman's head up with his hand and examined her lifeless features. Relieved, he sighed before pushing her onto the floor then stood up. "This shit is so fucked up…" Morrison tried to regain his composure.

"What killed her?" Zack wondered.

"The fuck should I know?" Morrison grunted.

"It was the shot to the head. She didn't stop moving until you shot her in the head." Jacob pointed.

"Well then put one in that little bitch of hers too." Phillips said before dry heaving and gasping for breath.

"You asshole! And what the fuck is wrong with you anyway!?" Zack glared at Phillips.

"I…I don't…" Phillips coughed. "You tell me! You're the fucking medic!"

Jacob slowly shifted his gaze from the dead woman to Phillips a few times as a dark theory began to formulate inside his mind. "What if…"

"Holy _shit_!" Zack shouted as the small girl leapt from behind the turned over cot and latched onto Morrison's leg, sinking her teeth into his flesh.

Morrison's bone chilling scream echoed throughout the lower levels of the mall before his hand gripped the nine millimeter in a holster strapped to his other leg. The gunshots silenced the bloodcurdling growls from the small girl.

An hour later the soldiers found themselves at a loss for what to do. They had regrouped back in the main lobby of the mall. Phillips sat against a pillar in a darkened area, still fixating on his wound while Morrison continued trying to raise anyone from his unit on the radio. Zack and Jacob sat at the bottom of the long fifteen foot wide stairwell that led up to the higher levels of the skyscraper.

"We know how to kill them." Zack lit up another cigarette. "Now what?"

"I don't know. I mean it's not like we have enough bullets to kill all of those things out there." Jacob sighed.

"Man…I can't believe this shit's happening. How the _fuck_ could it be happening?" Zack shook his head. "I mean is this like some kind of apocalypse or something?"

"You're asking the wrong atheist man." Jacob shrugged. "I think it's some kind of virus."

"A virus that brings you back from the fucking dead? Come on man." Zack scoffed.

"Well I didn't see any clouds parting out there. No fucking skeletons on horses and no fucking blood red moon. And besides aren't we all supposed to be fooled by some fucked up version of Christ before the real one gets here?"

"Aight, aight man, chill the fuck out." Zack shook his head.

"I think sarge had a good idea going before all that shit happened down there. We need to get to the roof and see if we can get in contact with anyone. Hell as tall as this building is we just might see someone alive out there." Jacob suggested.

"Aight let's go." Zack nodded.

The two stood up and walked over to Morrison. The exhausted sergeant gazed up at his soldiers.

"Sarge, me and Phelps are gonna go check out the roof." Jacob said.

Morrison lifted the radio and spoke through labored breaths. "Take the radio…get x-ray on the line."

"We'll try sarge." Jacob took the radio.

Phillips's vision slowly began to blur as he watched his two squad mates walk off towards the stairs. His breaths, recently reduced to small wheezing gasps, suddenly faded as he exhaled. His eyes shut and darkness overtook him. Twenty seconds later his eyes shot open and there were two humans walking up a strange floating path. Hunger surged through his body and mind. He slowly rose to his feet. A sudden cough snapped his head to the right and his vision was filled with the form of a wounded human sitting against a stone pillar. A low growl escaped Phillips's clenched teeth.


End file.
